Crochet hooks, lipstick.................

BottleBob wrote in news:V8qdnbGDzZBZ9MjUnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

I thought of a couple more...

I've used lead strips out of my tackle box to wrap the shank of a boring bar to control chatter. I haven't done any fishing in a decade or so. Do they still allow the use of lead sinkers?

Wax or use Rainex on the inside of the windows of a CNC machine so the coolant beads up and you can see better. Waxing the outside of the machines makes them easier to keep clean.

Reply to
D Murphy
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Z:

Man, at -320 you could almost scratch the rubber with a glass cutter and just break it off. :)

The banding material on shipping crates also works great for parallel holders. If you need to hold the parallels on a really wide part, just put a dummy block in the bottom of the vise to take up space for the banding springs to push against. And back to the original intent of this thread; I've heard of people using toothpaste as a lapping/polishing medium.

Reply to
BottleBob

Pill bottles (the small squat ones) for holding cutting oil or tapping fluid because they're hard to tip over.

Mustard squeeze bottles for dispensing thicker pastes (I got this idea from a container of Anchorlube which came in this sort of bottle)

Yogurt containers for holding small parts, bolts, etc

Not really a use but a modification: we all use those little acid brushes for applying cutting oil and such. I was taught to trim off most of the bristles so they don't get caught on sharp edges, and to squeeze the handle in a vise so that it can fit down inside the groove made by a lathe parting tool, to apply oil as you are parting off. Also cut the handles down by about half so that they don't tip over the bottle they're being dipped in

When applying acrylic cement and other solvents, if you use regular plastic syringes and bottles, they will melt from the solvents. I use a set of glass syringes from an estate sale, and a couple of tightly- sealed glass bottles to store the stuff.

I sometimes substitute a sawn-up phone book for the usual cigarette papers (the pages are about 0.002" thick)

Not quite in the same line but...we use a common Bosch router and router table with a carbide 45 degree router bit for nearly all our chamfering in plastics and aluminum. Saves an extra setup on the manual mills. Also a bearing-guided flush-trimming bit makes glued-up plastic boxes come out quite nicely (takes care of any overhang)

When machining steel or other ferrous metals on a magnetic chuck, I cover the chuck around the part with kitchen-style plastic wrap to help when it comes time to clean up the mess (since the chuck has some residual magnetism even after turning it off, the chips want to stick to the chuck no matter what)

Michael

Reply to
Woodworker88

Chip control, gardening tools, three prong handheld and four prong long handled cultivators if you have bigger machines. Garden hoe's, handheld and full size. Modified garden hoe's for reaching under areas such as the front y-axis way covers and behind the table on Fadal VMCs for example. Kitchen, solid plastic spatulas.

Coolant control, kitchen, turkey baster for sucking coolant out of pockets. Rinse bulbs thoroughly with water before storing, the bulbs don't get along very well with petroleum based products.

Reply to
Black Dragon

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